Spell changes (Community Patch Project)
The spell changes of the Community Patch Project affect the functioning of various spells. All spells were adjusted and partially rewritten into a new spell engine in order to fix several serious bugs and exploits. (There is no documentation as to which bugs and exploits the spell engine is intended to fix though.) In addition, numerous spells were changed to address issues with their specific functionality. Balance changes The project's author found major issues with several spells in all environments. To address these, the functionality of some spells intentionally deviates from their descriptions and the BioWare implementation. ; Metamagic : Empower spell in many cases had increased both a die roll and what was added to the die roll, as in (d4 + 1)×1.5 (which results in 3, 4, 6, or 7). This often made empowering more effective than maximize spell—particularly when what was added became large—even though maximizing a spell requires a greater increase in spell slot level than empowering a spell. A number of spells were changed so that empowering increases only the die roll, as in (d4)×1.5 + 1 (which results in 2, 4, 5, or 7). The spells with this change are bull's strength, cat's grace, circle of doom, color spray, combust, eagle's splendor, endurance, Evard's black tentacles, finger of death, fox's cunning, ghoul touch, greater bull's strength, greater cat's grace, greater endurance, greater eagle's splendor, greater fox's cunning, greater owl's wisdom, greater spell mantle, healing circle, healing sting, lesser spell mantle, magic missile, nature's balance, negative energy burst, owl's wisdom, ray of enfeeblement, ray of frost, slay living, sleep, and spell mantle. ; Stacking : Spells no longer stack with feats of the same name. This affects bull's strength, cat's grace, and eagle's splendor. ; Aura of vitality : The range was increased to . ; Aura versus alignment : Only one alignment now can be active at the same time (due to the limitation that causes the alignment of an attacker to be ignored by the damage-causing part; when the patch was created, it was believed that this limitation only applied when both holy and unholy auras were active). ; Black blade of disaster : The following actions have been added to those that break concentration: recover trap, examine trap, set trap, open lock, and lock. ; Bless weapon : The duration was rounds/level if cast on bolts; now the duration is turns/level (the same as when cast on melee weapons). ; Bombardment : The damage cap was raised to 20d8 damage (based on the Spell Compendium for the D&D 3.5 rules). This was done because the project's author believed that a druid's spell selection is very limited, and that this would give them one more good spell. ; Dominate person : Monstrous humanoids were added to the affected races (as was already the case with charm person and hold person). ; Ghoul touch: : Metamagic now affects the duration of penalties given to those who enter the noxious cloud. ; Mass haste : There is no longer a limit to the number of allies affected. ; Scare : The implementation was changed to be closer to the D&D rules in that a target that passes the saving throw will get the attack and damage penalties (unless immune to fear or to mind-affecting spells). In contrast to the D&D rules, though, only the fear effect (not the attack and damage penalties) is applied to a target that fails the save (which should make no difference since fear prevents the target from fighting). The project's author hopes this will make the spell a bit more useful. ; Sleep : The extra 2 rounds of duration (not mentioned in the spell description) were removed. ; Tashas's hideous laughter : Maximize and empower spell (which normally do not affect durations) have been factored into this spell's duration. This feature was removed in newer beta versions. ; Undeath to death : Line of sight is now checked, so this spell no longer affects creatures behind walls. New features Several new features have been added into some spells. These features affect minor details of the spells' operation (such as the saving throw subtype) or make the spells more convenient for a player to use. ; Saves : A new saving throw subtype was introduced for saves versus paralysis. The spells whose saves make use of this new subtype are Bigby's clenched fist, Evard's black tentacles, ghoul touch, greater planar binding, hold animal, hold monster, hold person, lesser planar binding, planar binding, and the paralysis result of prismatic spray. ; Visual effects : Some spells lacked visual effects for some targets under certain circumstances. Visual effects have been added in these cases for call lightning, feeblemind, negative energy ray, ray of enfeeblement, weird, and all weapon and armor boosts (blackstaff, blade thirst, bless, bless weapon, darkfire, deafening clang, flame weapon, holy sword, keen, magic vestment, magic weapon, and greater magic weapon). : Some spells were missing the usual visual effect for saving throw use. That visual has been added to bane, doom, feeblemind, lesser planar binding, and sunburst. : Some spells had visual effects deemed incorrect by the project's author. Changes were made to inferno, Melf's acid arrow, sleep, wail of the banshee, and weird. ; Blood frenzy : the spell couldn't be recast until expired ; Continual flame : any item that this spell is cast at is now marked as stolen to disable the cast/sell exploit (a module switch have been added to disable this feature, see x2_inc_switches) ; Destruction : saving throw subtype changed to death ; Ghoul touch: AoE enter : added saving throw subtype (poison) ; Infestation of maggots : initial ability damage is now applied even if target already suffer with secondary effect ; Magic vestment : Will target an equipped shield if cast on a character who is not wearing armor/clothes. ; Melf's acid arrow : initial damage is now applied even if target already suffer with secondary effect ; Meteor swarm : If the hak-based version of this project is used, then this spell no longer requires explicit targeting as it can only be cast on the caster. ; Wail of the banshee : The banshee visual effect, sound and spell's effect applications were accelerated by 100% to avoid exploiting the delay to swap item with immunity before the death effect application. : Also, creature that cannot hear or inside silence zone are immune to this spell completely. Spell fixes Numerous issues with spells have been addressed by the Community Patch Project. These involve spells not functioning as described, not functioning according to the project's preferred interpretation of the game's rules, or functioning in a way that did not make sense to the project's author. ; Mobile areas of effect : Mobile areas of effect have been changed so that the caster does not lose the benefits of the spell. (The project does not guarantee this fix for others in the aura, though, calling that situation "module-related".) This affects battletide, dirge, magic circle against alignment, and silence. ; Spell cones : Cone-shaped spells could, in certain circumstances, affect the caster. This has been changed (the caster excluded from the targets) in burning hands, color spray, cone of cold, Mestil's acid breath, and prismatic spray. ; Acid fog : damage in heartbeat was same for all creatures in AoE : The unused saving throw in the heartbeat has been removed. ; Aid : temp HP stacked ; Aura of vitality : spell was always centered on caster not target ; Awaken : maximized metamagic didn't work : spell stacked before ; Balagarn's iron horn : spell wasn't set as hostile : spell school was incorrectly set to enchantment ; Bane : spell didn't removed invisibility/GS effect : immunity feedback corrected (was spoken as a whisper by caster) ; Banishment : area of effect was implemented around the caster (visually not correct because you can cast it at distant location) : HD Pool was lowered only in case that target resisted the spell or succeeded in save : killing method could fail in special case (magic damage immune/resistant + death magic immune) ; Black blade of disaster : enhancement bonus wasn't calculated properly ; Bless : spell was always centered to caster not target ; Charm monster or animal and charm person : in certain circumstances, it could affect even wrong race like undead (spell mantle) ; Cloud of bewilderment : alignment immune creatures were omitted ; Cloudkill : damage in heartbeat was same for all creatures in AoE ; Confusion : extended metamagic didn't worked ; Creeping doom : SR check in AoE enter removed ; Dismissal : area of effect was centered on caster ; Divine power : was removing temporary hit points even from other sources ; Doom : immunity feedback corrected (was shown as floating text) : saving throw check occurred before SR check ; Drown : in certain circumstances, it could affect even wrong race like undead (spell mantle) ; Endure elements : extended metamagic didn't worked ; Entangle : incorporeal creatures could been affected ; Feeblemind : maximized metamagic was quadrupling the result of the dice : immunity feedback corrected (was spoken as whisper by caster) ; Find traps : innate level was incorrectly set to 3 ; Fire storm : wasn't properly capped : fixed special case where target wasn't damaged at all (evasion, failed in first save but succeeded in second one) : damage values were always even (special odd value workaround added, so either divine or fire damage will be odd to match total damage value) ; Flame strike : damage values were always even (special odd value workaround added, so either divine or fire damage will be odd to match total damage value) ; Gate : removed loot from summoned balor ; Gedlee's electric loop : always tried to stun creature with improved evasion who succeeded in first save ; Glyph of warding : DC for this spell was always 14 : this spell doesn't allowed spellcraft saving throw bonus ; Grease : incorporeal creatures could been affected ; Greater bull's strength : removed any previous bull's strength implications. (ShaDoOoW believes this was not meant to not stack because other greater ability spells do not have it. However, ShaDoOoW believes someone did this spell by copy & paste from bull's strength, so that is "it".) ; Harm : touch attack removed if cast on undead (roll wasn't used in this case anyway) ; Horizikaul's boom : mind immune creatures were immune to the blind (technically: saving throw subtype changed to none) ; Identify : innate level was incorrectly set to 2 ; Infestation of maggots : disease immune creatures aren't affected now : killing method could fail in special case (magic damage immune/resistant creature) ; Inflict wounds spell line : touch attack removed if cast on undead (roll wasn't used in this case anyway) ; Light : counterspell (darkness) for this spell wasn't set ; Magic circle against alignment : fixed lost of bonus when player with his own circle was subject to someone other's circle ; Mind fog : was missing immunity feedback ; Negative energy burst : didn't worked on friendly undead on low difficulty setting : undead took saving throw and healing could be halved in case of succeed in save : saving throw check occurred before SR check ; Phantasmal killer : second saving throw subtype changed to fear (as per spell's descriptors) : missing feedback when target was fear immune ; Regeneration : Stacking with itself was disabled. ; Shades : The stoneskin variant no longer stacks with itself. ; Shadow conjuration : The mage armor variant no longer stacks with itself. ; Shelgarn's persistent blade : damage reduction was 25 instead of 5 ; Slay living : touch attack occurred after SR check (united with other similar spells to "first touch then ask" behavior) ; Spike growth : AoE set up wrong exit script ; Stinking cloud : alignment immune creatures were omitted : was missing immunity feedback : now removes any old daze effects, if the target succeeds in the save ; Storm of vengeance : the spell didn't do any damage last tenth round of the duration ; Sunbeam : second save at DC 0 removed : damage wasn't properly calculated in case that there would be both undead and non-undead creatures in AoE ; Sunburst : killing method could fail in special case (magic damage immune/resistant vampire) ; Tashas's hideous laughter : alignment immune creatures were omitted ; Undeath to death : saving throw check occurred before SR check : maximized version of this spell wasn't properly capped : spell affected the most distant creatures first instead of nearest : killing method could fail in special case (divine damage immune/resistant undead) ; Vampire touch : all temporary hit points was removed even from other sources : temporary hit points were removed even in case that target was dead ; Vine mine, entangle : incorporeal creatures could been affected ; Vine mine, hamper movement : incorporeal creatures could been affected : didn't removed all applications of the slow effect from this spell ; Weird : second saving throw subtype changed to fear (as per spell's descriptors) : was missing immunity feedback ; Wounding whispers : damage wasn't random Non-visible changes A few spells were changed in ways that are never directly observable by a player. These changes affect the behind-the-scenes operations of the spells and only impact those creating custom content. ; Blade thirst : signal event never fired ; Dirge : AoE signaled wrong spell ID ; Earthquake : signaled hostile event to the caster although caster should't be affected ; Fireball : removed special spell ID check that disabled custom content ; Shield of faith : did signal wrong spell ID ; Vine mine (all variants) : AoE signaled wrong spell ID category:Community Patch Project